Chapter 152: Holding the Sword Across the Horse

"Roar!"

The red-furred giant bear, standing over three meters tall, reared onto its hind legs and let out a fierce roar at a group of students a dozen meters away.

Opposite it, Li Chunyi held his breath. The Flame Rampant Bear was not poisonous, but these exotic beasts never cleaned their mouths and frequently fed on rotting flesh, resulting in an exceptionally foul and rancid odor.

This Tier 3 Flame Rampant Bear possessed rather low intelligence, yet it could genuinely breathe fire through specialized internal organs, and its explosive source energy carried blazing flames.

Among the low-tier exotic beasts of the Northern Frontier, the Flame Rampant Bear was considered quite difficult to deal with.

If Li Chunyi were alone, he would be confident in slaying it. Despite its massive weight, immense strength, and low intelligence, its speed and stamina were both subpar.

After a few bouts of exhaustion, the beast would become docile. Without source energy for protection, this creature could not even withstand a large-caliber firearm.

However, with over a hundred students directly behind him, he had to take this Flame Rampant Bear head-on.

Lacking the space for mobile combat, confronting the beast head-on instantly multiplied the difficulty of the battle tenfold.

Yet he truly could not retreat. If the Flame Rampant Bear were to charge into the crowd, it would kill them with a single swipe of its claws. Coupled with its ability to unleash raging flames, it could slaughter more than half of the hundred-plus students in the blink of an eye.

Li Chunyi sighed inwardly; if he only had a few cooperative comrades, this fight would be much easier.

As for the group of students behind him, they were either shrinking back in fear, recklessly brainless, panicking in anxiety, or standing utterly bewildered...

Reflecting on it, these students were only around eighteen years old, and for most, this was their very first encounter with such a formidable exotic beast. Such reactions were to be expected. At least no one had been scared to the point of crying or wetting themselves on the spot.

Li Chunyi's plan was to stall for time. Although Flame Rampant Bears were ferocious and violent by nature, under normal circumstances they retained a shred of sanity and could gauge strength.

With over a hundred of them present, the beast would exercise some degree of caution.

If they held out for a little while, reinforcements among the teachers might arrive. Any competent senior martial artist could easily team up with him to dispatch the Flame Rampant Bear.

"Brother Li! I've got beast-repelling spray. Bears have extremely sensitive noses; one whiff of this and it won't be able to stand it—" A young man proudly produced a sealed plastic sphere and hurled it straight toward the Flame Rampant Bear.

Li Chunyi moved with lightning speed, grabbing the sphere out of the air, but not before a portion of the pungent chemical spray leaked out.

"You motherf—" Li Chunyi was furious. He wasn't afraid of incompetent teammates, but a "god-sent" teammate pulling a stunt like this out of nowhere was lethal.

The Flame Rampant Bear possessed the most volatile temper. Any form of irritation would cause it to completely lose its reason.

As the pungent odor drifted through the air, the Flame Rampant Bear, positioned downwind, caught the scent instantly. Its sense of smell was over a hundred times sharper than a human's.

The irritating scent infuriated the beast. With a mad roar, it charged directly toward the crowd.

The distance between them was far too close. Li Chunyi shoved the kid beside him hard out of the way, drew his long saber, and lunged forward to slash fiercely at the giant bear.

Li Chunyi had entered military service at the age of fifteen, accumulating rich combat experience, and by eighteen, he had condensed his third acupuncture point to advance to a senior martial artist.

In terms of cultivation, he had initially believed he could suppress all freshmen in the Northern Province, never expecting a freakish anomaly like Gao Wu to emerge. Even so, he had only been shocked by Gao Wu's flashy and dazzling sword dance; he was by no means intimidated by him.

Facing a brainless Tier 3 Flame Rampant Bear, Li Chunyi felt no fear either—he was simply lacking the confidence to block it head-on.

In this critical moment, Li Chunyi stimulated his Golden Tiger Vigor. A faint golden light shimmered around his entire body, and his tall frame expanded slightly. Driven by divine strength, the five-foot Stone-Splitting Saber in his hand emitted a piercing, whistling shriek through the air, piercing the gap between the beast's claws ahead of time to strike directly at its head.

A bear's skull possessed the hardest defense, making it a poor target. Yet to blunt the momentum of the beast's charge, he had no choice but to meet force with force.

A blazing crimson flame flared intensely over the giant bear's massive body. The flames were both violent and tenacious; the fifty-kilogram Stone-Splitting Saber was layer by layer eroded by the source energy field. Ultimately, though it tore through the energy barrier and struck the bear's skull, it left behind a gash only an inch deep.

Li Chunyi dragged his saber edge across in a brilliant maneuvering technique, slicing open one of the bear's eyes and its nose, leaving a long, continuous gash across its face.

Stung by agonizing pain, the bear grew even more berserk. With a single sweep of its massive paws, it sent Li Chunyi flying backward.

Seeing Li Chunyi hurtling toward them like a cannonball, the students in the front scrambled to dodge in panic, while a few foolishly tried to catch him with their hands, throwing the group into total chaos.

Mid-air, Li Chunyi kept his pale golden aura blazing, tucking his body tightly and actively landing to roll twice, dissipating the majority of the impact force. Simultaneously, he hurled his saber away just before crashing into the cluster of classmates.

Bodies immediately tumbled in a pile. At least seven or eight people were knocked down by Li Chunyi, letting out miserable screams and cries of alarm as the scene dissolved into complete disorder.

The Flame Rampant Bear, having batted Li Chunyi away, pursued him relentlessly. This only heightened the panic and flight of the others, though a few brave souls drew their swords in preparation to fight.

Recovering slightly from the middle of the crowd, Li Chunyi saw the dire situation and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Form a team to block it! Don't take it head-on—"

Even though he possessed innate strength and practiced the Golden Tiger Scripture, making his bones and muscles as tough as steel, he had been battered by the Flame Rampant Bear to the point where his limbs were numb and devoid of strength for the moment. He could only hope a couple of capable students would step up to stall the beast.

He only needed them to buy him a fraction of time; once he stood back up, he could hold off the Flame Rampant Bear...

Regrettably, the surrounding students lacked the organizational capacity for this. It wasn't purely out of cowardice—the Flame Rampant Bear, engulfed in billowing flames and exuding a ferocious, brutal aura, was simply too terrifying. Forget ordinary martial artists; even typical senior martial artists lacked the courage to confront it directly.

Just as tragedy seemed inevitable, the charging Flame Rampant Bear abruptly froze in its tracks, accompanied simultaneously by a sharp, piercing shriek tearing through the air.

Li Chunyi looked toward the source of the sound with a mixture of shock and suspicion. The sound was razor-sharp yet deep, resembling the roar of a giant aircraft, entirely distinct from the sound of armor-assisted flight.

Before Li Chunyi could process it, a towering, rugged, and majestic mechanical warhorse entered his field of vision. The beast moved with breathtaking speed—so fast that Li Chunyi had no time to identify the rider before he saw a brilliant, dazzling sword flash descending horizontally from the saddle.

The mechanical warhorse was too fast, and the horizontal sweep of the radiant blade dragged a brilliant, lingering stream of light through the night sky... completely engulfing the Flame Rampant Bear.

The charging mechanical warhorse suddenly reared high up on its hind legs, pivoting sharply to a halt in place.

Only then did Li Chunyi clearly recognize the rider: it was Gao Wu. Seated right behind Gao Wu was a female companion whose features were obscured, though judging by her silhouette, she was undoubtedly Song Mingyue, who was never far from Gao Wu's side!

With the warhorse rearing on its hind legs, its already imposing frame appeared even more magnificent and formidable. Though standing completely still, it exuded an intense, dynamic power.

Gao Wu sat steadily in the saddle, holding the reins in one hand and grasping a nine-foot longsword horizontally in the other. His medium-length hair fluttered in the wind, radiating a poised, untethered elegance coupled with a domineering, heroic aura.

Though the face of the woman behind him remained obscured, her slender and graceful figure was clearly visible. The concealment of her features actually lent her a subtle, mysterious aesthetic.

It was precisely at this moment that the frozen body of the Flame Rampant Bear split diagonally into two halves, with gushing blood and flickering flames scattering into the air.

Amidst the deep nocturnal stillness, illuminated by the spray of fire and blood, the rearing warhorse, Gao Wu holding his sword and reins, and the serene, gentle woman all presented their profiles to the crowd. Their silhouettes, illuminated by the radiant glow, appeared exceptionally sharp and clear, intensifying their majestic and domineering presence.

Behind them stretched a magnified shadow, grand as a mountain peak, pressing heavily upon everyone's hearts.

The lingering, unbroken trail of sword light and the severed carcass of the beast conveyed a chilling, ruthless cruelty.

All these elements combined to form a breathtakingly stunning composition...

Li Chunyi stared blankly at Gao Wu, who sat astride his horse holding his sword horizontally, with only a single thought echoing in his mind: *"Damn it, I'm about to die of envy from how cool this bastard looks! This guy really knows how to grandstand! He is a master of showing off!"*

Not just Li Chunyi, but every other student witnessing the spectacle shared the exact same sentiment.

If Gao Wu's sword dance during the freshman assembly had resembled an otherworldly immortal descending from the heavens with exquisite precision, his current charge on horseback to decapitate an exotic beast was far more than a mere performance—it was a critical rescue that saved countless lives in the face of imminent peril.

This engraved the scene unforgettably into everyone's minds. Overwhelmed by shock, gratitude, and awe, they all realized that Gao Wu was truly worthy of the title of Youth King—a genuine hero!